Kwaku Agyemang-Manu

Agyeman-Manu is a member of the New Patriotic Party and the member of parliament for Dormaa Central Constituency in the then Brong Ahafo region of Ghana.[4] He served as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the immediate-past Parliament and was the acting CEO of the National Health Authority in 2006, and also the deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning under former President Kufuor's administration (2001 to 2008).[10][1] In this government, he served a Deputy Minister of State in the following Ministries: Trade and Industry, Interior, Finance, Communication and Roads and Transport.[11][5] He has served on the Boards of institutions such as the Small Arms Commission of Ghana, the Ghana Revenue Authority, Bank of Ghana, and the Divestiture Implementation Committee.[11]

In May, 2017, President Nana Akufo-Addo named Kwaku Agyemang-Manu as part of nineteen ministers who would form his cabinet.[12] The names of the 19 ministers were submitted to the Parliament of Ghana and announced by the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Prof. Mike Ocquaye.[12] As a Cabinet Minister, Agyemang-Manu is part of the inner circle of the President and aids in key decision-making policies for the country.[12][13]

He is a member of the Members Holding Offices of Profit Committee.[8]

In 2005, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang Manu, then Deputy Finance Minister under the Kufuor administration, issued a letter in the absence of the substantive Minister of Finance to a company owned by Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome in regards to the construction of stadia's for the CAN 2008. Mr. Woyome then sued the Government of Ghana in 2009 and secured a judgment of over GHC 51 million, relying on the letter issued by Mr. Kwaku Agyemang Manu.[14][15]

On the 8 February 2019 the President of IMANI Center for Policy & Education,[16] a Ghanaian-based Think Tank, first reported about various procurement breaches by the Ministry of Health (MoH) in the procurement of Anti-Snake Venom Serum in an open letter on Facebook to the Minister. In an attempt to quell the issue, the Minister was heard on a local radio station, Adom FM, refuting the allegations of tender procurement breaches. A follow-up response was also sent to IMANI in this regard These claims by the Minister were later found to be fabricated to cover up dealings with a local company called Pharmanova. The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) ruled against the Ministry and cited various procurement breaches in its decision and requested the Ministry to disqualify the two Pharmanova companies for double bidding amongst other issues and re-evaluate the tender with the remaining tenderers. This scandal was widely covered in the local media and many wondered why the Minister was still at post after these hard facts leveled against him had caused the loss of many lives in the country due to the shortage of this all important emergency drug. Up until March 2020, the Minister has tried various attempts to cancel the said tender, opened up new tenders for Anti-Snake Venom Serum, ignoring the ruling by the PPA and trying to allocate these new tenders again to Pharmanova Ghana Limited.[17][18][19][20][21][22]

In 2019, the Ministry of Health opened a tender for condoms under bizarre circumstances. Interestingly, no local company who could have had supplied the condoms participated raising questions if the tender was open and widely publicized as required by the Public Procurement Act. It is also interesting to note that the contract again went to Pharmanova Limited.[23][24]

A locally registered company owned and managed by Indian nationals has been active in Ghana since 2005 and has increasingly won many tenders especially under the tenure of Kwaku Agyemang Manu as the Minister of Health. No full-blown investigations have been started by the Government of Ghana whilst evidence of fraud and tender manipulation has been widely published by local media.